Bearing.



J. A. WINTBO W BEARING. APPLICATION FILED Aua.s. IQIs.

II-.atent'ed J une 11, 1918.

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. I mll aww H yJOHN A. WINTR'OATH, OF LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, ASSIGNOR T0 LAYNE & BOWLER CORPORATION, OF LOS ANGELES, CALIFQRNIA, A CORPORATIONOF CALIFQRNIA.

Los Angeles, county of Los ,Angeles,.State of California, have invented a new and useful Bearing, of`which the following is aV specification.

The bearing involved in this invention is applicable to high speed heavy duty shaftssuch as are used in deep well centrifugal pumps, inl which connection .it has recently gone into extensive use and has increased `the range of such pumps to depthsy previoperated'bearing, which fis one of the elesystem. Also, this problem is difficult in;

ously unattainable with pumps working on the rotary or centrifugal principle.

AOne of the objects of the invention is to improve the means for packing the fluld ments of my larger bearing system, and it will of course be understood that the problem of packing such a-member is important from the standpoint of the eiiciency of the view of the high speed of the shaft and the deectios and vibrations to which it is subject; This specification will'disclose my solution `thereof.

Other objects will appear from a consid eration Vofthe drawings 'and' the specification.

The drawings illustrate some of the preferred forms of lthe invention.

Figure 1 is a longitudinalsection through my bearing or bearlng system. Fig.l 2 is an enlargement vof certain features thereof.

Fig. 3 is a transverse section on line'- 3 3, Fig. 1. Fig. 4 villustrates one modification of the packing feature, and Fig.

5 'llustr' tes another modification thereof.

For thel purposes of this invention shaft 1 lInay be considered as supporting a very.

heavy thrust, say several tons in a downward direction, and as having a high rotary speed, say 1,000 revolutions per minute, or

more. In'a general way these are the conditions encountered in deep well centrifugal the pumping parts which are fastened to its lower end.- The heavy thrust is composed of the weight of the shaft,the reaction of therising column of waterwhich BEARING.

Specification of Letters Patent.

, 11 encirclin rammen .time ii, freie.

application med august so, 1916, serial No) 117,600.

is particularly noticeable with some styles of pumps,` and vthe weight of the impellers and other parts at the lower end of the shaft.

The topl threaded end 2 of the shaft, see 6 F ig.` 1, engages nut 3, and if preferred the `Shaft may be housed in a sleeve'4 extending from below` nut 3 down through the bearings as shown. This sleeve ts the shaft nicely and key a causes the sleeve and 6 shaft to rotate together, but they are free to slide lengthwise on each other.

The head 5 of the sleeve 4 rests on plate 6 to whichit is pinned by pin 7. Wear ring 8 is forced ontoplate 6 and revolves with it. Also, between ring 8 and the cor! responding ring 9 below, are the antifriction ball bearings 10, which are arranged in the ordinary manner in the annular groove the shaft. These balls sup- 7 gort part o the load of the shaft as will e hereinafter explained.

' The housing, 12 whichsupports this anti-- friction bearing means is adjustable laterally so that it may' accommodate itself to 8 the shaft, and the adjustment` iseffected by means of screws 13.

In addition to the support thus' given the shaft receives most of its support from one or more fluid operated bearings. In Fig. 8

' 1 twoof these bearings are shown, the upper one being indicated at b, and the lower one at 0, and since these bearings are practically duplicates of each other the description of one will also serve for the 9 other.

In a general way thesebearings consist of a rotary portion 14, connected to shaft 1 or rsleeve 4, and a stationary portion 15.

The rotary portion includes the plate or 9 piston 16 which is keyed to the `shaft by means of keys 17. These keys are guarded above' by cap 18, and are butted below by ring 19 fitting between the head of the key and the neck of the piston. 1

The lstationar member consists vof the base portlon 20 aving a stuffing box 21 below, and a ring orcap 22 screwed tin above. The construction of this base and cap is such that when they are put together as 1 shown, an accurately machined annular socket 23 is formed between them, and in this socket is housed the fullfloating endless ring 24.

Before going further into the details `of construction it will be understood that some suitable iuid like oil or water is forced into pipe 25 from a pump of adequate pressure and capacity,I and from this pipe the fluid passes through the regulating. valve 26, and pipe 27, into pressure chamber 28. flhe pressure of the fluid is of course very high, sometimes being in excess of' 100 pounds per square inch, and if 4efficiently conned within chamber .28, it exerts a tremendous upward balances and supports most of the down thrust of the shaft. Of course the degree in which this bearing can be depended upon to uniformly sup ort these heavy thrusts, over long periods otime, and without watching, depends en which the fluid is lconfined within chamber 28 without leakage, and in lView of the high rotary speed of the shaft and its deflections, and adjustments, the problem of eliminating or minimizing the leakage is vnaturally very dicult.

The dihculty in fact was one of the causes that delayed the early7 commercialization of these bearings, but the full floating endless ring 24;, subject to the qualifications and suggestions. as to the machining of the surrounding members, etc., as herein `set forth,

has eliminated these diculties, and has recently raised the bearings herein shownto so high a standard, that this system has practically lgone into universal application in high duty centrifugal well pumps. This in fact was uite a notable achievement because the di culties referred to acted as a practical limitation against the extension of such pumps to very deep and heavy work, but this invention, by eliminating `the trouble, has destroyed this limitation and already these pumps have reached a depth of more than twice what was usual before the introduction of this invention.

In order to understand all this more fully t'tention is called to Fig. l, and to enlarged The outer cylindrical surface-29 of plate or piston 16, is machined and finished very accurately, and substantial clearance, sometimes an eighth of an inch, is left between this surface and the inner surface 30 of cap 22, and surface 31 of base 20, see Fig. 2.- In fact I .prefer that this surface 29 should be in active contact with no other surface except the inner surface of the ring 24,' but this surface of the ring, is machined very accuratelyso as to exactly lit the equally well finished surface 29 of the piston, without permitting any appreciable leakage between these surfaces, and on the other hand without. causing any binding between the ring and the piston. 'This fit should be as accurate as possible, and in practice I sometimes work it, to within a fraction of a thousandth of an inch, still leaving the ring thrust on piston 16 and counter-` tirely upon the efficiency withfree however to rotate or move lengthwise on the piston or plate 16. Of. course with such a fit the leakageiisgreatly minimized, but the great point is to maintain this fit without noticeable wear during normal voperation. Ordinarily it would be presumed that theminute vibrations of the shaft would force no matter how ba the vibration of the shaft or. other parts. It is toward this that the full floating feature of my ring is directed. By being full oating I mean that the ring has ample clearance both laterally and vertically, and is therefore free to 'float inv any direction with the shaft and the plate or piston.` This will be clear from Fig. 2, where the clearance 33 at the back of the ring indicates the range of lateral freedom and the clearance 34: at the bottom of the ring indicates the range of vertical-freedom. The bottom surface 35 of cap 22, and the upper surface 36 of ring 24, are also machined accurately so that when the fluid' works up from chamber 28 into clearance 34 beneath the ring it forces face 36 of the ring up onto face 35 of the cap and seals od all possible leakage around the ring that way, the same assurfaces '29 'and 30 seal od leakage at that point. Between these various joints, and the stung` box 21, the chamber 28 is obviously closed throughout so that fluid pumped into it maintains practically its initial pressure and exerts a very vigorous and constant u ward force on the plate 16. Also, it wil be understood that the ring 24: is restrained against rotation by means of 4pin 37, reaching into the enlarged cavity 38 in lthe ring, see bearing c, Fig. l.

With a-construction finished off as` indicated, the shaft may vibrate and deflect in conformity with its usual behavior but the ring will float with it freely and no noticeable pressure is ever established between the piston or the ring, or other vital parts, and all itstherefore remain practically intactas at first even after many months of continuous operation. Viewing this confroin this source'are subsequently encountered, and in view of -the rconstancy and deversely it lpractically means that since the leakage is eliminated at the start no troublesv pendabilit vthus derived from these fluid operated with the care and support of the several thousand dollars worth of machinery that hangs on the shaft below. Not only is the earings I can safely trust them Awear on the ring .reduced by its full ioating feature as described, but also, since there is always a very slow oozing leakage which I prefer to permit between the ring and g the piston, these faces 29l and 32 possibly never come into actual wearing contact with each other but are probably always held apart by the confined lm of oil that gradually works up and vthrough them.- This leakeopious sense, which is objectionable, but is more in the nature of a slow oozing 'action such as is consistent with good lubrication of the adjacent parts, and as indicated, I am of opinion that this is highly desirable and should not be eliminated.

Also, the-fact that the ring is endless, as distinguished --from the ordinary split rings used for packing purposes, is of considerable value', for if the ring werel split the iiuid that oozes up between it and the piston would promptly spring the split ring away from the piston, for ltmust be re-` V,memberedfthat the pressure of this Vfluid is very high, and of course if the ring were sprung out the leakage would be -very great.

For this reason I use the endless ring madeof some good bearing metal, or its equivalent, and also in view of the fact that the ring is endless, I make thecap 22 removable from the base 20 in order that I can put the ring in place and take it out. If the ring were split it vcould be sprung into its socket and out again in the ordinary endless ring. 'Ihe next point thatwarrants consideration is the general arrangement of my bearings with respect to each other, and also the mutual adjustments between them.

From F1g. 1 it will be seen that each. of

, the bearings b and c, are supported on a ledge 39, connected with the outer housing, and also that they are free to move around laterally on the ledge except that they are ultimately limited in their motion 'by pin 40 reaching into the enlarged cavity 41,-see bearing b. 'Also, below theV lowermost duid'bearing is located the bearing d which is chiefly useful `if the shaft'is driveny with a belt, and this bearing is also adjustable laterally on web or ledge 42 by means of screws 43, the same as the uppermost bearing in the-system is adjustable by means of screws `13.- Y

All these various adjustments play an important part in simplifying the machining between vmy vbearings and in allowing them to automaticall accommodate, themselves tothe shaft. of course that as` the shaft comes up through the earth, .it vis not always strictl lvertical, A in view of crookedness of the'well etc., and when this is true I consider it wiser to aline the bearings with the shaft rather than to age of which I speak 1s not in the oidinary manner, but this isfnot pos/sible with the t will be understood force the shaft to take the line of the bearings. The latter procedure would put the shaft under stress and wouldv also cause the bearings to wear fast.

With my system however, I adjust the top bearing and the bottom bearing d, laterally by means of screws13'and 43, until thesebearings take uptthe normalline of the shaft, and in view of the bearings a and b beingv free/to move laterally on their ledges 39, these members will of course line themselves up automatically. Clearly this is all desirable because Vit makes the adjustments quick and easy, and also avoids all possibility of putting the shaft under strain such as might happen if some of the bearings were absolutely rigid in their housing. If' two or more of the bearings were 'fixed in the housing, instead of being movitself to its operating conditions.`

In addition to this elasticlty 1n a lateral direction, my system is also possessed of a vdesirable degree of elasticity in the vertical direction.

By this I meangthat each of the pistons 16 'im in the Huid operated bearings may move up and down a considerable amount without destroying or disturbing the fluid tight feature of the pressure 'chamber 28. F uid operated. bearin s of this 'construction are essentially di erent from other bearings in which Huid somehow vcooperates in supporting the thrust, `but which secure the fluid tight feature lby virtue of the' top plate resting and running in contact with an upstanding annular rimprojecting from the base below.v Suchv constructions arev akin to ordinary thrust plates with forced feed lubrication in betweenbecause there is no vertical elasticity to the bearing. If the vtop plate moved up the least bit it would destroy the seal effected at the rim vand would allow the fluid to squirt'out freely between the plates. course render the bearing useless, at least so far as its ordinary. theory of operation goes. Such inelastic bearings could not be ,if-common thrust plates are used, would be so great and the character` of the work so rI`his would ofl l v' worked into a multistage system because the machining that would be required both in fnethat the expense would be prohibitive, and also it would only be a short time before one ofthe bearings wore more than the othersv and would promptly give trouble. With my type of bearings however, there is considerable vertical play in each, and the fluid operated bearings can not only register automatically with each other regardless of the number of them which there are in series, but they can also register equally well with any supplementary bearing of a purely mechanical sort like the ball bearing at the top of the shaft, and no special niachining of any character is required. Of course T use two or more of the fluid operated bearings according to the load to be carried, and with very heavy loads there should' be a great many ofsuch bearings. T do not like to use the iiuid operated bear; ings alone without somesupplementary me-y chanical bearing, because if T did the shaft would tend to work u and down continually. This is due to tiie fact that it would be very difficult to keep the :duid pressure in the bearings constant all the time, and if there were no mechanical bearing the uctuations in uid pressure would cause the shaft 'to move up and down in accordance with principles which are well understood. With the supplementary mechanical bearing present however, T arrange the Huid pressure so that the Huid operated bearings carry slightly less than the full shaft load, say 95% thereof, and the remaining 5% is carried on the supplementa mechanical bearing. This slight remain er is just sumcient to anchor the shaft on the mechanical bearing always, and prevents the vertical oscillations of the shaft referred to, so that the chief function of the mechanical bearing is to position the shaft and hold it there while the Huid operated bearins carry by far the j major portion of the loa W ith reference to sleeve 4 surrounding the shaft, its function will be understood to be as follows:

In order to lace the impellers attached to the lower en of the shaft at the correct point in the pump bowls, it is often necesl@Si sary to raise or lower the shaft slightly in position. This is done by .turning nut 3 which works in conjunction with the 4threaded end 2 of the shaft and either raises or lowers the shaft. If the sleeve d were not a part of the structure, and the bearing arts were all' connected direct to the sha instead of to the sleeve, these parts would also be pulled up or down through the housing with all adjustments of the shaft, and in that event the bearing parts, particularly pistons 16 on the fluid operated bearings, would have vto be very long in order to provide for this adjustment, or else the amount of the adjustment would be curtailed, and neither of these contingencies are deslrable.

When the sleeve'is used however, the shaft' ticularly true in connection with the full floating endless ring, and accompanying parts, as hereinbefore set forth. Fig. .d shows a modification in 'which the ring and its socket are placed at the top of the base portion 2O of the bearing, andFig. 5 shows another modification in which the ring is in the rotating part instead of the stationary refer the conpart of the structure. l struction shown in Fig. 1, owever, but do not desire to. be limited to this or any of the other modifications shown, except as, distinctly stated in the appended claims.

Claims. v

l. Tn combination, a vertical shaft threaded near its upper end, a nut engaging the said threaded portion of the shaft, a sleeve embracing the said shaft and having a sliding relation therewith, the said sleeve being connected to the shaft however so as to rotate therewith, and bearing members connected to the sleeve for supporting downthrusts transmitted from the shaft.

2. Tn combination, a vertical shaft threaded near its upper end, a nut en agin the said threaded portion df the sha a s eeve embracing the said shaft and having a sliding relation therewith, the. said sleeve being connected to the shaft so as to rotate therewith, the nut having a connection with the sleeve so that by screwing the nut the shaft is drawn through the sleeve, a plurality of bearing plates rigidly locked onto the sleeve one 'above the other, one of said plates being associated with a mechanical bearing for sustaining part of the downthrust of the Mill shaft, and another of said plates being assosaid Huid operated bearing including a rotar memberand a stationary member, an en less packing ringbetween the said rotary and stationary members, and independent means for supplying fluid to the bearing. 4:. Tn combination, a rotating vertical shaft loaded from below, a fluid operated bearing coperating in supporting the shaft,

said fluid operated bearing including a ro-` .tary member and a stationary member, a

lle

` and the shaft so as to cause the rotary memto rotate with the shaft, the

ber to rotate with the shaft, the said rotary and stationary members being shaped in such manner as to form a pressure chamberfor receiving Huid under pressure between them, independent means for supplying fluid to the bearing, and an accurately machined endless lring for packing oli-l the space between the rotary member and the stationary member.

5. In combination, a rotating vertical shaft loaded from below, a fluid operated bearing coperating in supporting the shaft, said fluid operated bearing including a rotary member and a stationary member,y a connection between the saidrotary member and the shaft for causing the rotary member said rotary and stationary members being shaped in such manner as to form a pressure chamber for receiving fluid under pressure between them, and an accurately'machined endless packing ring between the rotary and stationary members, said ring having free lateral play.

6. In combination, a rotating vertical shaft loaded from below, a. fluid operated bearing coperating in supporting the shaft, said fluid operated bearing includinga rotary member and a stationary member a connection between the said rotary member and the shaft for causing the rotary` member to rotate with the shaft, the said rotary and stationary members being shaped in such manner as to form a pressure chamber for receiving fluid under pressurebetween them, an accurately machined endless packing ring between the rotary and stationary members,

-sa1d ring fitting in an annular socket in bearing coperating in which it has free lateral play,.and a removable portlon forming one wall of the socket so that'the endless ring can be withdrawn.

and placed in the socket.

7. In combination, a rotating vertical shaft loaded from below, a Yfluid operated supporting the shaft, said fluid operated bearing including a rostationary member, a

and the shaft for causing the rotary member to .rotate with the shaft, the said rotary and' stationary members beingushaped in such manner as to form a pressure chamber for receiving fluid under pressure between them, an accurately machined endless packing ring chined so as to it the said between the rotary and stationary members, said ring fitting inan annular socket in which 1t has free lateral play, a removable portion forming one wall of the socket so said rotary member and the shaft for causing the rotary, member to rotate with the shaft, the said rotary member having an accurately inished eX- ternal cylindrical face, the `said stationary member being built up around the said Arotary member in such manner as to form'a pressure chamber for receiving iuid under pressure between the said stationary and rotary members, an annular socket formed in the stationary member opposite the finished cylindrical face of the rotary member, av removable portion on the stationary member forming one wall of the socket, and an endless packing ring fitting in said socket with free lateral play therein, the inner cylindrical face of said ring being accurately maexternal cylindrical face of the rotary member. v 9. In combination, a rotating vertical shaft loaded from below, a fiuid operated bearing coperating in supporting the shaft, said bearing including a 4rotary member and a stationary member, an endless packing ring between the said rotary and stationary members having free lateral play, and mde` pendent :means for supplying Huid to the bearing.

10. The combination with a rotatable vertical shaft of a fluid operated bearing therefor comprisingv a stationary cup-shaped member, a member mounted therein and rotatable with the shaft, an endless packing ring interposed between the periphery of the rotating member and the stationary member and freely movable laterally, and means for introducing fluid under pressure to said bearing.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand at Los Angeles, county of Los Angeles, State of California, this 17th day of August, 1916.

y i JOHN A. WIN TROATH. 

